“Eat Them to Defeat Them” 2019 proved hugely successful, with more than 650,000 children eating more vegetables and 18 million more units of vegetables sold – enough for an extra portion of vegetables on every family dinner table in the UK for each week of the campaign.
“The fantastic results of “Eat Them to Defeat Them” proves the power that TV advertising has to positively inspire and educate people and demonstrates the real social impact broadcaster collaboration is delivering – changing the eating habits of hundreds of thousands of children for the better,” Matt Salmon, Interim Sales Director, Channel 4 said.
The campaign launched in January 2019 as a collaboration between ITV and Veg Power, with dedicated funding from a number of supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Birds Eye, Co-op, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Tesco – and pro-bono contributions from advertising and media partners.
The campaign is returns to make a bigger statement in 2020. On Saturday, “Eat Them to Defeat Them” launched with a roadblock advertising campaign across ITV, Channel 4 and Sky. It eerached 80% of households with children, in the biggest-ever single campaign to promote vegetables in the UK.
“We’ve proven that the power of creative advertising can inspire children to eat more veg and reduce their chances of developing diet-related illness, so it’s crucial that we build on this success: industry, business and government must forge ahead and promote veg in more dynamic and creative ways,” Dame Rosie Boycott, chair of Veg Power, said.
Following the launch and throughout the seven-week campaign, the initiative focuses on a different vegetable each week, encouraging children to join the fight to defeat the vegetables. More than 1,500 schools will also be taking part, with vegetable-related canteen recipes, posters and 450,000 reward charts and sticker packs for kids to take home. Communications agency adam&eveDDB will be creating six brand new ten second ad spots for the campaign, with additional support across supermarkets and food brands.
It’s time to inspire children to eat, and defeat, even more vegetables in 2020.
“The 2019 campaign results really blew us away,” Clare Phillips, Director of Social Purpose at ITV said. “ITV are delighted to be leading it again, mobilising an even bigger alliance of partners, and we hope to get hundreds of thousands of children eating more vegetables as a result.”
